Long-term musical training may improve different forms of visual attention ability

•Orchestra musicians performed better than non-musicians in visual attention tests.•They showed superior performance in selective, divided and sustained attention.•This advantage could not be explained by better sensorimotor integration.•Musicians who began their musical studies earlier presented better reaction times.•These data illustrate the possible cognitive benefits of long-term musical training.

Many studies have suggested that structural and functional cerebral neuroplastic processes result from long-term musical training, which in turn may produce cognitive differences between musicians and non-musicians. We aimed to investigate whether intensive, long-term musical practice is associated with improvements in three different forms of visual attention ability: selective, divided and sustained attention. Musicians from symphony orchestras (n = 38) and non-musicians (n = 38), who were comparable in age, gender and education, were submitted to three neuropsychological tests, measuring reaction time and accuracy. Musicians showed better performance relative to non-musicians on four variables of the three visual attention tests, and such an advantage could not solely be explained by better sensorimotor integration. Moreover, in the group of musicians, significant correlations were observed between the age at the commencement of musical studies and reaction time in all visual attention tests. The results suggest that musicians present augmented ability in different forms of visual attention, thus illustrating the possible cognitive benefits of long-term musical training.